Last week I saw a movie that I’ve been meaning to see for quite some time. I saw Art School Confidential.

Wow, this movie pretty much summed up a lot of what my life was like for the few years I was at art school. I laughed. I laughed a lot.

I remember hearing a lot of good things about the movie when it was first released. After watching it I looked online to read up on any interesting background information that I might be able to find, as I often to. I was quite surprised to see that many critics did not like this movie. Many complaints I read were about how the characters are cliched stereotypes, the story was tacked on, and that there was too much disappointment. Well, clearly these people have never been to art school, because all of those things are exactly what it’s like. Art school and its surrounding culture is full of freaks, weirdos, unlikable pretentious know-it-alls, disappointment, and all the cliches present in this film.

I bought it on DVD for $5. A well placed investment considering the entertainment value. I guess since my own viewpoint is skewed having attended art school once upon a time, perhaps I am not the best judge. But I think it is more likely that the people who didn’t like this movie are just like the pretentious know-it-alls I just spoke about.

Anyway, I liked the movie but it reminded me of why I don’t want to go back to art school. So I’m not. Well, that’s not entirely true. I made that decision already based on something else. I’ll talk about that later.

Sayonara.

Hello everyone.

I was out of town last week. Nothing too exciting, just hanging out with my cousins mostly. I brought my laptop and finished a piece of art I was working on, which will be online later. I also watched many bootlegged movies. I don’t necessarily condone this, but they were available so I watched them. I liked Star Trek and Terminator but I didn’t like Wolverine that much.

Feeling kind of sluggish right now. I have a lot of catching up to do so I had better snap out of it soon.

Even though it’s the middle of July I’m getting busy preparing for what I’ll be doing this Fall. I have a few opportunities lined up and of course I am trying to take advantage of as much as I can, but it’s looking like I’m going to be running into some scheduling difficulties. I was afraid of that but I hope I can work them out so I can maximize my schedule and have more stuff to do, as that would result in more money with which to purchase more robots to aid in my never ending quest to achieve global domination.

Sayonara.

It’s Canada Day. Rock on, Canada.

Here are some pictures from last week’s excusuion to the Toronto premire of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

A special guest made an appearance near the theater.

It’s Bumblebee!

Here are my ninja minions and I with Bumblebee just outside the AMC theater on Dundas in Toronto.

And here is me and the bee.

This is… interesting. Coincidentally, it was Pride Week in Toronto the same week as the ROTF release. Somebody decided to combine the two concepts together and so now we have a chalk drawing on the sidewalk of Manformers: Optimus Pride. It seemed to be quite popular.

It’s quite interesting to me that ROTF has been making money like crazy yet has been so savaged by the critics. Sure, there are many things I didn’t like about ROTF, but I think it’s much better than the first Transformers movie, which was generally well liked by the critics. There has never been a gap this wide between the general audience and the critics. I am greatly amused by the fact that this rift has been caused by Transformers, a movie based on a toy line. That is awesome.

Sayonara.

So… Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

The reviews are out and the response thus far has been quite mixed. And rightly so. There is a lot not to like in this movie. Many characters are wasted and given little to do. Others are annoying or borderline offensive. And speaking of offensive, the film is quite vulgar. There is no way I’d ever recommend a parent allow young children to see this movie. I did not like that aspect of the film at all.

BUT…

The stuff that was there that I liked… I really liked. I liked it enough to say that I really enjoyed the movie. Although a lot of characters don’t do much, there is more character development for others. Starscream really shines, his portrayal is much better here over the first movie and his line at the end might just be the best in the whole film.

Optimus Prime is quite a dark and violent character this time around. You don’t mess with him! The fight scenes are really brutal, and I really liked them. You got a much better look at what was going on as opposed to the first Transformers movie, and it was much more visually clear as to what is going on. Much easier to follow.

Ultimately, even with everything wrong with it, I still have to say that I liked it overall because this is the only movie where I completely lost it and let out a big cheer in the theater during a certain scene that I won’t spoil. And I know I wasn’t alone in that because it got loud. All I can say about it is that I went in to the film looking forward to seeing The Fallen kick some Autobot ass, and by the time it was over, Optimus Prime had convinced me to join his team.

Now, it’s quite possible that I think my experience in watching Revenge of the Fallen was better than it really was, because of the circumstances surrounding how I saw it. I lead my team to victory at the TFCon Faction Feud trivia contest, and seeing the movie on Monday, before everyone else, was the grand prize. Most of us were able to get together in Toronto to hang out that weekend before the movie started. We all had a blast and it was an unforgettable, irreplaceable experience. Maybe I’d feel differently about the movie had I just gone on my own on any regular day.

BUT…

Maybe not! Maybe I just liked it, and that’s the way it is.

Anyway, I’m planning to be at the deviantART meet in Toronto tomorrow.

Sayonara.

So, this is the latest interesting stuff that’s been going on.

Last week, I bought 6 games for Nintendo Wii. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy, Zack and Wiki, Both Resident Evil 4 and Umbrella Chronicles, and House of the Dead 2&3. I bought them from someone on Craigslist who was selling his entire video game collection and getting out of the hobby altogether. Total cost for all 6 games: $75. Can’t beat that! They all work fine and are in perfect condition. I’m playing Mario Galaxy now and it is every bit the masterpiece it was purported to be. I’m ashamed that I’m only playing it now instead of when it came out, but considering how little I paid for it, things seem to have worked out ok. Really looking forward to New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Super Mario Galaxy 2!

On the weekend I participated in a Manga Workshop in Toronto taught by Svetlana Chmakova, who I had met at the Anime North manga workshop last month when she appeared as a suprise panelist. She’s a cool person and a great teacher. I managed to draw the prototype version of an 8 page manga about a slacker artist who loves comic books but goes to a fancy art school and has problems with girls. Go figure, right? The initial idea was a group effort generated by the class, and it spoke to me to I ran with it for my final project. Some time this summer I will finish a good copy of it and you’ll all be able to see the thrilling conclusion. Svetlana said that I was pretty advanced for this class, and I appreciated that because it’s something I probably needed to hear. I still learned a bit and had a lot of fun getting into a serious groove with some manga drawing for a solid block of time.

On Monday I finished the last class of the cartooning class I was teaching on behalf of another company in Toronto. The class as a whole was not well organized, with too wide a range of ages as I noted in an earlier post. By the time it was over, only 4 students remained. But, the ones who did stay liked it a lot. I taught a lesson about creating comic strips, using blank templates I created, and everyone completed more than one page. Most notable was this one really young girl who came up with this hilarious story about a heart (that is, a typical Valentines day-style heart, but with a face, arms, and legs) who goes to different stores around town. Based on my instruction, she drew all the backgrounds and everything like she was supposed to, and took my suggestion of having the heart’s house look like a box of chocolates. In the midst of the heart’s travels, the story’s narration abruptly informs the audience that the heart is old, and has died. Wow, obviously I was not expecting that! The whole town cried (in a panel completely comprised of “Whaa whaa whaa boo hoo” and so forth”) and we are informed that, and I quote, they “did not jump for joy“. The last panel is the heart’s tombstone that says “The End”. I couldn’t have made this up if I tried. It was great. The class wasn’t perfect but I’ll miss those kids.

So I figured I was done with teaching for awhile, but maybe not. We’ll see.

More later.

Sayonara.